#this could also explain why the kids in Amity are More Liminal(tm) than the adults

[illeaadante]

Concept: Ghost Empathy and why Vlad is Emotionally Invisible

So, in the DP fandom we all play around with ghost abilities and characteristics, but one of the main fanon things is that ghosts are emotion, they are empathy. Ghosts are ectoplasm which is emotion manifest.

Why, and in fact how, then would Vlad be Emotionally Invisible?

Simple! Repression.

Vlad's half human (at least, personally I love the fanon that Vlad's not a full halfa because he didn't die in one shot) which means that he has more ability to emotionally regulate than beings that are made entirely of emotion. Vlad's also an adult, a billionaire, a politician, and a business man; all things that require emotional control and compartmentalization. Why would that not carry over to his ghost side?

I like to think that Vlad started to feel the ghost empathy, and he was like "cut that shit out" immediately. He walled himself off from feeling anything from other ghosts, which dampened his own emotional signature/projection.

Ghosts, who are beings of empathy, don't feel Vlad. He disappears from their perception if he's not within eye/ear shot or just close enough for his cut off trickle of empathy to reach them, because all ghosts rely on emotions for spacial awareness. The empathy is probably how they can tell if they're getting too close to someone else's haunt.

Danny does the rest, not that he realizes that he's masking Vlad from the rest of the ghosts.

Danny's a teenager and a ghost, i.e. the Most Emotional Being possible. Danny's projecting his feelings everywhere, all the time. So, whenever the ghosts come to Amity to blow off steam and stuff, they come across this fountain of frustration and their empathy goes "ah, upset baby, a good fight will help him calm down." Of course, not realizing that they are the cause of a lot of that frustration.

Once Danny learns what ghost speak/ghost empathy is and what it feels like, his relationships with his rogues get a Lot better, because now he understands! These guys are just looking for enrichment/ a way to let off some steam. Meanwhile the ghosts feel accomplished that the baby has calmed down and started using his words.

But what Danny doesn't understand, at least at first, is why the ghosts seem to believe Vlad, even when his lies aren't that great. Especially when it seems like he never gets anything past them.

It isn't until the next time he fights Vlad and feels how-- empty-- Vlad is that he gets it. Then he catches on, his emotional signature is giving him away.

None of the ghosts take the time to think that Vlad would lie to them, because what's the use lying to the dead? The living, sure, they're easy to mess with because they can't sense emotions, but none of the ghosts ever think that Vlad would cut himself off from the rest of them. He's just got a weak emotional signature, right?

That's also why Skulker doesn't hunt Vlad. He doesn't think that Vlad is a halfa, or if he knows, he thinks Danny is the stronger halfa due to the difference in their emotional signatures, so of course he'd go for the more difficult hunt. (he's right, but only partially because of the empathy)

I also like to think that the empathy is the reason that Danny gains so many new powers and control so quickly (compared to Vlad, anyway, he had 20 years to learn and he's still got fewer powers than Danny.)

Oh! It would also be fun if Danny had, like, a Resonant Core. Like, because he's so empathic he can alter his core to Resonate with the cores of the ghosts around them and copy/borrow their abilities. He's a halfa, and still growing, so his core hasn't settled and won't settle fully until he's Full Dead. (at which point the boy has an Officially Recognized Resonant Core, which means he is Certified Terrifyingly Powerful and it's a good thing for the Infinite Realms that he doesn't want to be a despot.)